Get iTunes on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows

EDITORS’ NOTES

Mike Hadreas’ soul-bearing art-pop gets bigger, riskier, and more beautiful on each album. Expanding the sound of 2014’s transformative Too Bright, No Shape is both deeply raw and highly stylized, retaining the vulnerability of Hadreas’ early voice-and-piano recordings while constructing a tight, layered sound touching on everything from late-‘70s Fleetwood Mac (“Wreath”) and Kate Bush (“Slip Away”) to hallucinatory riffs on ‘50s torch songs (“Every Night,” “Braid”). At best—the dizzying coda on “Wreath”—the music seems to contain so much feeling it verges on bursting.

EDITORS’ NOTES

Mike Hadreas’ soul-bearing art-pop gets bigger, riskier, and more beautiful on each album. Expanding the sound of 2014’s transformative Too Bright, No Shape is both deeply raw and highly stylized, retaining the vulnerability of Hadreas’ early voice-and-piano recordings while constructing a tight, layered sound touching on everything from late-‘70s Fleetwood Mac (“Wreath”) and Kate Bush (“Slip Away”) to hallucinatory riffs on ‘50s torch songs (“Every Night,” “Braid”). At best—the dizzying coda on “Wreath”—the music seems to contain so much feeling it verges on bursting.

TITLE

TIME

Otherside

2:40

Slip Away

2:45

Just Like Love

3:14

Go Ahead

2:53

Valley

3:09

Wreath

4:26

Every Night

2:47

Choir

2:28

Die 4 You

3:32

Sides (feat. Weyes Blood)

4:52

Braid

2:58

Run Me Through

4:44

Alan

2:46

13 Songs, 43 Minutes

Released: May 5, 2017

℗ 2017 Matador

Ratings and Reviews

4.9 out of 5

31 Ratings

31 Ratings

THE ANTICIPATION IS REAL !!!

Apr 2, 2017

étreétrange

I love perfume genius, honestly there isn't anyone doing what he does atm. If the album is anything like the single "Slip Away" or any of his previous works, than it will be fabulous!

THE ANTICIPATION IS REAL !!!

Apr 2, 2017

étreétrange

I love perfume genius, honestly there isn't anyone doing what he does atm. If the album is anything like the single "Slip Away" or any of his previous works, than it will be fabulous!

Wow...

May 5, 2017

delete it fat

i'm blown away. This album exceeded my expectations in so many ways. It's so different from his last albums sonically but it's still just as vulnerable. I think this has a chance of replacing Too Bright as my favorite album. People just buy it already it'll change your life.

Wow...

May 5, 2017

delete it fat

i'm blown away. This album exceeded my expectations in so many ways. It's so different from his last albums sonically but it's still just as vulnerable. I think this has a chance of replacing Too Bright as my favorite album. People just buy it already it'll change your life.

One of our best singer-songwriters

May 5, 2017

~Hazel~

Though he doesn't try to hide his influences (e.g. Kate Bush) he doesn't let them devour him either - his music is still very much its own thing. And his lyrics are uniquely heartrending. Beautiful production (he manages to evolve his sound with every album while still sounding recognizably 'Perfume Genius'-y), tunes, and vocal performances from Hadreas.

One of our best singer-songwriters

May 5, 2017

~Hazel~

Though he doesn't try to hide his influences (e.g. Kate Bush) he doesn't let them devour him either - his music is still very much its own thing. And his lyrics are uniquely heartrending. Beautiful production (he manages to evolve his sound with every album while still sounding recognizably 'Perfume Genius'-y), tunes, and vocal performances from Hadreas.

About Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius is the project of singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas, whose music spans fragile piano ballads and swaggering glam rock as he explores subjects such as sexuality, homophobia, and domestic abuse with brutal and often poetic honesty.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, and growing up in Everett, Washington, Hadreas was bullied for being gay and coped by painting, writing, and listening to artists including PJ Harvey and Liz Phair. While attending Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts, he was hospitalized after he was attacked by a group of young men in his neighborhood. Once he recovered, he moved to Brooklyn and spent a few years working at a bar and partying. He returned to Everett in 2005 to go to rehab, then lived with his mother and stepfather.

During this time, he began making music, pairing unflinching lyrics with simple piano melodies. By 2008 he had set up a MySpace page and began offering his music there, along with similarly spare and evocative homemade music videos; a year later, Turnstile Records released his debut single, "Mr. Peterson," the tale of a suicidal pedophile high-school teacher. Hadreas also signed to Matador Records, which released Perfume Genius' full-length debut, Learning, in mid-2010. To tour in support of the album, Hadreas brought Alan Wyffels, a classically trained pianist he met in group therapy, as an accompanist. Eventually, they became a couple, and Wyffels performed on Perfume Genius' later tours and albums. These included 2012's even more intimate Put Your Back N 2 It and 2014's snarling Too Bright, which was inspired by glam rock, PJ Harvey, and Hadreas' growing frustration with casual homophobia; it featured Portishead's Adrian Utley and longtime Harvey collaborator John Parish.

Perfume Genius returned with new music in 2016, collaborating with Sharon Van Etten on a cover of the Grateful Dead's "To Lay Me Down" for Day of the Dead, a Grateful Dead tribute album produced by the Red Hot Organization to fight AIDS/HIV and related health issues around the world. That September, Hadreas also issued a cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" that was featured in the ad campaign for Prada's La Femme and L'Homme fragrances. Hadreas recorded Perfume Genius' fourth album, No Shape, in Los Angeles with producer Blake Mills; spanning influences such as gospel, goth pop, and soul, it arrived in May 2017. A year later, he issued the No Shape companion EP Reshaped, which featured six remixes by the likes of Mura Masa, King Princess, Blake Mills, and more. ~ Heather Phares